Album Review: High School Musical: The Musical: The Series: The Soundtrack

This is Album #26/20 that I listened to for my 2020 challenge. I listened to this album 5 times for my review.

Here are some quick stats about High School Musical: The Musical: The Series: The Soundtrack:

• Released January 10, 2020

• Album length: 1:38:51, 41 tracks

• Peaked at #31 on the US Billboard 200

• Genre: Pop, Musical Theatre

• Metacritic score: 89/100

This one's gonna be a little different than my previous album reviews. This is the first soundtrack I'm reviewing. So it's a little different, there's a whole cast involved, the songs are written with the purpose of progressing the plot since it's a musical etc. I love musicals and showtunes and High School Musical. I watched the show because I'm a High School Musical/Disney fan and have posted a review on Season 1 of the show. Since I watched the show, I obviously wanted to listen to the soundtrack in full.

I do really enjoy the original songs on this album. My biggest problem with the soundtrack is how lengthy it is. It's full of unnecessary versions and duplicates of songs. This is why I only listened to the album five times instead of my usual eight. "I Think I Kinda You Know" has five versions of the song on the soundtrack. This includes a Nini only version, a Ricky only version, a Nini and Ricky version, an acoustic Nini and Ricky version and an instrumental version. "Wondering" has four versions, "We're All In This Together" has four versions etc etc. It's extremely extensive. I don't think it was necessary to include all of these versions on the album. Inclusion of the acoustic versions don't really add anything as they sound very similar to the originals if not slightly worse. I have definitely been in the boat where I need to have every possible version of the songs sung in the show, including instrumentals etc. But I think these should have been formatted completely differently. The album could have had original songs on one disc and High School Musical songs on the second disc, or everything but the original songs could have been released on a deluxe edition (including acoustic versions, instrumentals, audition tidbits, medleys etc). The normal edition doesn't need the acoustic versions, the instrumentals, maybe not even the High School Musical movie covers. I think the soundtrack should have just been the nine original songs.

Now that I've gotten that out of the way, let's get into my thoughts. I don't really have many thoughts on the High School Musical movie covers or the instrumentals so I'm only going to be discussing the original songs below. As I said in my Season 1 TV review, I'm really happy that they casted Olivia Rodrigo (Nini) and Joshua Bassett (Ricky). I think they're super talented. Olivia wrote "All I Want" and both Olivia and Joshua wrote "Just For A Moment." I love that their own songs were included and showcased in the show. I really don't like "A Billion Sorrys" and "Truth, Justice, and Songs In Our Key." They both sound like Kidz Bop, dumbed down versions of a real pop or gospel song. There are nine original songs, two of which I thought were pretty bad. The other seven songs are BOPS. I love them. They're all so catchy. My favorites have to be "I Think I Kinda You Know," "Born To Be Brave," and "Just For A Moment," but these seven original songs are so good. Another note I have is that the next season should feature more original songs. Nine original songs in Season 1 divides out to one original song per episode (except for one episode with no original song), although "Just For A Moment" was just used as a background song in an episode, so this kind of works out to eight episodes with original songs. I think the next season should have a few more original songs.

Recommendations:

Listen or don't listen: Don't listen. This pains me because I love the show and the original songs, but I don't think this will appeal to most people. Disney/soundtracks/musical theater is already a very specific demographic. On top of that, this is very teen, bubblegum music which most people won't like or take it seriously, but I think it's a super fun album. I also have to judge the album as a whole and there are a lot of extra songs that I don't think should have been included in a standard edition of the album. It the album was formatted in a way that only had the nine original songs I might be more inclined to recommend a listen, but it's not so I can't. Pretty much the only reason you should listen to this album is if you watched the show, which is probably pretty standard for soundtracks.

Buy or don't buy? Don't buy. There's too many extra, unneeded songs. There's only seven songs that I would want to buy, which doesn't make up for the other 30+ songs on the full album. I have to make a black and white recommendation of buy or don't buy, but I do just want to add that I would support buying "All I Want" and "Just A Moment" as those are written by the two main cast members. I would encourage supporting them and their artistry.

I'm a sucker for bubblegum music, so as long as it's catchy I'm going to love it. Most of the original songs are extremely fun and cute. I do have a problem with all the duplicate songs on the album, which means I definitely will not be listening to the album in full, but I will definitely continue to listen to the seven original songs that I do like. Personally I would give this a 7/10. There are definitely problems with the album, but I love most of the original songs. Have you listened to this album? Let me know your thoughts down below!